1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to user interfaces for computer systems. More specifically, the present invention relates to a method and an apparatus for displaying related two-dimensional windows within a three-dimensional display model.
2. Related Art
Today, most personal computers and other high-end devices support window-based graphical user interfaces (GUIs), which were originally developed back in the 1980's. These window-based interfaces allow a user to manipulate windows through a pointing device (such as a mouse), in much the same way that pages can be manipulated on a desktop. However, because of limitations on graphical processing power at the time windows were being developed, many of the design decisions for windows were made with computational efficiency in mind. In particular, window-based systems provide a very flat (two-dimensional) 2D user experience, and windows are typically manipulated using operations that keep modifications of display pixels to a minimum. Even today's desktop environments like Microsoft Windows (distributed by the Microsoft Corporation of Redmond, Wash.) include vestiges of design decisions made back then.
In recent years, because of increasing computational requirements of 3D applications, especially 3D games, the graphical processing power of personal computers and other high-end devices has increased dramatically. For example, a middle range PC graphics card, the “GeForce2 GTS” distributed by the NVIDIA Corporation of Sunnyvale, Calif., provides a 3D rendering speed of 25 million polygon-per-second, and Microsoft's “Xbox” game console provides 125 million polygon-per-second. These numbers are significantly better than those of high-end graphics workstation in the early 1990's, which cost tens of thousands (and even hundreds of thousands) of dollars.
As graphical processing power has increased in recent years, a number of 3D user interfaces have been developed. These 3D interfaces typically allow a user to navigate through and manipulate 3D objects. However, these 3D interfaces are mainly focused on exploiting 3D capabilities, while little attention has been given to supporting existing, legacy window-based 2D applications within these 3D user interfaces.
If a 3D interface is to be commercially viable, it is crucial to be able to support the large existing base of legacy 2D applications. One of the problems that arises in trying to use 2D applications within a 3D interface is how to arrange related 2D windows in an intuitive and convenient way within the 3D interface. Note that within a 3D interface, it is possible to indicate relationships between 2D windows through a large number of possible spatial relationships.
Hence, what needed is a method and an apparatus for displaying related 2D window-based applications within a 3D user interface.